THE ATLAS 19 – Pre-order Open! 2-Part Release Party Thurs. 8/15!
THE ATLAS 19 / Young Emerging Writers 2024 Interns and Staff
The 2024 Young Emerging Writers
Natalia Badillo | Asmita Bag | Emily Barnes | Daisy Beckwith | Mady Beyer | Maya Boehle | Duncan DeMarr | Caroline Page | Zafirah Hassan | Olivia Heick | Ayden Kelley | Lyn Kress | Imani Lopez | Sam Miller | Lola Nakashima-Brooke | Esref Onder | Chloe Pruett | Margil Sanchez Carmona | Carter Stevenson | Prerna Vanga | Danielle Wassenhove | Esther Windt | George Young
YEW Program Director/Editorial Director: Ryan Collins
Assistant Program Director/Managing Editor: Erica Eastland
Assistant Program Director: Sarah Elgatian
Workshop Leaders/Assistant Editors: Sophia Best, Alyjah Carter, Melissa Conway, Phoebe Fuller, Htoo, Ava Miller, Larissa Pothoven, Hailey Schmacht
Cover Image: Lyn Kress
Cover Design and Layout: Sam Bruner
Page Design and Interior Layout: Sam Bruner and Erica Eastland
MY NATIONAL PARKS by Jacob Boyd (Foster-Stahl Chapbook Series) | Pre-order Today! Release Party: July 25 at Rozz-Tox!
Advance Praise for
Jacob Boyd's MY NATIONAL PARKS
"In My National Parks, Jacob Boyd guides us through unmarked territory in the same way he has 'wandered deep into his own life as if looking for undiscovered gold.' These trails lead from the vastness of the national parks we know through the poet’s most intimate dreams. There are mountains and canyons, creeks and rivers, in both locales, but in Boyd’s work we also find the companionship of a patient woman and a good dog, phone calls from the dead and views of the universe through alien eyes. Within this unique geography, we find ourselves equidistant between the underworld and utopia. Within these poems, we find ourselves at the confluence of mystery and meaning."
--Denton Loving, author of Tamp
"Clearly, Jacob Boyd sees more in his peripheral vision than most of us see head-on; despite their quiet, understated tone, these poems are notable for their striking authority even as they question themselves and by implication their readers, in fresh, surprising ways. This peripatetic collection is not to be missed!"
--Claire Bateman, author of Wonders of the Invisible World (42 MIles Press)
Shattered Constraints: An Anthology of Radical Hospitality
“A heart, a kaleidoscope of love's diverse embrace,
Shattered constraints, a newfound grace.”
– Kai Newell, “A beacon of hope in a muted world, queer and colorful, unfurled.”
Shattered Constrains: An Anthology of Radical Hospitality is a collaboration between the Midwest Writing Center and the Galvin Fine Arts Center at St. Ambrose University, bringing together poems, stories, and essays by 23 writers from around the Quad City area to form a chorus of welcoming. This book calls out to its readers to consider ways “to dismantle the barriers to belonging faced because of immigration status, recovery journey, or history of incarceration,” to be bold in their generosity, and to embrace those in our community who are too often considered strangers, as who they are: our neighbors.
“perhaps you too have endured being divided into nothing”
– Claire Dodson, “safekeep”
“You say you’ve come a long way, I say the door is already open…”
– Melissa Conway, “The Door is Already Open”
Cirissa Bentley | Sophia Best | Ann Boaden | Adrian Cole | Melissa Conway | Allie Crisco | Dawson Davenport | Claire Dodson | Jacob Duncan | Daniel Flosi | Faith Foley | Philip Goldfarb Styrt | Olha Huska | Farah Marklevits | Joseph Martin | Margie Mejia-Caraballo | Kai Newell | Haven O'Brian | Reyan Onder | Daniel Salazar | Olivia Smith | Elena Vallejo | Esther Windt
THE ATLAS 18
THE ATLAS 18 / Young Emerging Writers 2023 Interns and Staff
The 2023 Young Emerging Writers
NATALIE AUKEE | NATALIA BADILLO | ALYJAH ARAE CARTER | SEAN CHEN | PHOEBE FULLER | ZAFIRAH HASSAN | MOON HAYES | ANAVAH JONES | AYDEN KELLEY | LYN KRESS | YIJIA (LINDA) LIN | IMANI LOPEZ | ESTHER WINDT | D.W.M. | MISHKA MOHAMED NOUR | LOLA NAKASHIMA-BROOKE | REYHAN ONDER | LAH PAW | WYETH PLATT | JACKSON RANDLEMAN | MARGIL SANCHEZ CARMONA | RACHEL SORENSEN | MARY GRACE STOCKDALE | AUDREY WILLIAMS
YEW Program Director/Editorial Director: Ryan Collins
Assistant Program Director/Editor-in-Chief: Erica Eastland
Assistant Program Director/Managing Editor: Sarah Elgatian
Workshop Leaders/Assistant Editors: Zach Blair, Sam Bruner, Melissa Conway, Charly Heber-Spates, Htoo Htoo, Janey Locander, Natalia Matlag, Ava Miller, Larissa Pothoven
Cover Image: “To Bee Or Not To Bee” by Reyhan Onder
Cover Design and Layout: Sam Bruner
Page Design and Interior Layout: Sam Bruner and Erica Eastland
Our most sincere thanks to our sponsors/grantors for their generous support of the 2023 Young Emerging Writers Internship Program and The Atlas 18: the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Hubbell-Waterman Foundation, the Scott County Regional Authority, Modern Woodmen of America, Illinois Humanities, the CD Wiman Memorial Trust, the Melvin McKay Charitable Trust, the Rock Island Public Library, and Rozz-Tox.
Our gratitude, respect, and love to the following: the Midwest Writing Center Board of Directors, Committees, Staff, and Volunteers; the Rock Island Public Library; Sophia Best, Ben Miller, and Anne Pierson Wiese, Visiting Writers; Keith Pilapil Lesmeister, Rebecca Wee, Jesus “Chuy” Renteria, Kali White VanBaalethe, the David R. Collins Writers’ Conference 2023 Faculty; Timothy Curry, founder of the YEW Program; Sarah Elgatian and Erica Eastland, Assistant Program Directors; Zach Blair, Sam Bruner, Melissa Conway, Charly Heber-Spates, Htoo Htoo, Janey Locander, Natalia Matlag, Ava Miller, Larissa Pothoven, Workshop Leaders; and all the friends and family of the 2023 Young Emerging Writers for their care, dedication, and support to make this program, and this magazine, possible.
More info →FOR A SECOND, IN THE DARK by Alec Hershman
Advance Praise for
Alec Hershman's FOR A SECOND, IN THE DARK
“For a second, in the dark, the flip-side
of paranoia is wonder: enrapturing details
Hershman’s mind lights upon and transforms.
His vigilant imagination shows us the town as
it is, as we know it is, when we really stop to
think about it. A bowling ball consumes the
cops, milk flows through the forest or a bird’s
throat, a fire-hydrant pre-ejaculates, the grocer
uploads the produce with feeling. All of us in
this elevator know it, this “elevated vision,” and
Hershman provides it with excellent music.”
—Philip Matthews, author of Witch
“The rhyming darknesses of strangers, curtain-
twitching psychedelia. Synesthesia working like
echoes, images that catch snatches of reality
in a way that feels like discovering a painting
in a room you’ve just walked into is actually a
broken mirror. Oddity and precision— you
haven’t seen the world like this, but you have,
deep down. Deja vu. Here’s a little hum to hold
in your hand, a gentle practical joke, and then
a lyric moment like a landslide cutting under
your feet. The forces of history are a wolf sitting
in your kitchen with you, and it’s likely you’ll
be devoured. You should take this book with
you so that you have something to read while
it happens. Hershman is Laura Jensen’s heir in
originality, absurd humor, and beauty, and we
are lucky to have him.”
—Annah Browning, professor of English at
Blackburn College; author of Witch Doctrine
ALEC HERSHMAN is the author of two previous volumes of poetry: Permanent and Wonderful Storage (Seven Kitchens, 2019) and The Egg Goes Under (Seven Kitchens, 2017). He is a grassroots labor organizer and currently serves as the Chair of Education for the Ypsilanti Industrial Workers of the World. He lives with his husband and dogs in Michigan.
More info →
THE FAMILY TREE by Shellie Moore Guy – Now Available!
The Family Tree, written by Shellie Moore Guy and illustrated by Gwen Ballard Patton, tells the real-life story of Charley Wilson and Sandy Terry, two brothers who escaped slavery to join the Union Army to fight for the freedom of their people during the Civil War. Learn how the brothers lived during slavery, how they escaped, and what they did during their time as soldiers. Follow their families as they settle following the war and how they and their descendants become important people in their new communities.
Author's Note - Shellie Moore Guy
My great-great-grandparents Charley and Eliza Wilson and their family settled in Rock Island, Illinois in 1866 following the end of the Civil War. They moved to the town of Port Byron, Illinois in 1876. In 1914 a man named John Hauberg interviewed Charley. The result of that interview is a description of my ancestors’ lives during slavery and how they gained their freedom. This is the basis of my book, The Family Tree.
Writing this story and bringing my ancestors’ experiences to life has been a source of joy and inspiration. After sharing this story with my family, the children seemed so interested and excited that I decided that other children may be interested and would benefit from learning about local and national history.
Our story reflects the stories of many African American families in the United States and it is my hope that this labor of love will provide the readers of this book a sense of history as well as a source of personal inspiration, encouragement, and pride.
More info →THE ATLAS 17
THE ATLAS 17 / Young Emerging Writers 2022 Interns and Staff
The 2022 Young Emerging Writers
ZACH BLAIR | LOLA NAKASHIMA BROOKE | ALYJAH CARTER | JOE deBLOIS | PHOEBE FULLER | METRO HAMM | CHARLY HEBER-SPATES | AYDEN KELLEY | JANEY LOCANDER | MISHKA MOHAMED NOUR | THI NGUYEN | WYETH PLATT | AUDREY WILLIAMS | ETHAN WINDT
YEW Program Director/Editorial Director: Ryan Collins
Assistant Program Director/Editor-in-Chief: Sarah Elgatian
Assistant Program Director/Managing Editor: Erica Eastland
Workshop Leaders/Assistant Editors: Sam Bruner, Melissa Conway, Ava Miller, Hailey Schmacht, and Katherine Shewell
Our most sincere thanks to our sponsors/grantors for their generous support of the 2022 Young Emerging Writers Internship Program and The Atlas 17: the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Scott County Regional Authority, the Regional Development Authority, Modern Woodmen of America, Illinois Humanities, the CD Wiman Memorial Trust, the Melvin McKay Charitable Trust, the Moline Foundation, the Rock Island Public Library, and Rozz-Tox.
Our gratitude, respect, and love to the following: the Midwest Writing Center Board of Directors, Committees, Staff, and Volunteers; the Rock Island Public Library; the David R. Collins Writers’ Conference 2022 Faculty: Jennifer Colville, Gina Franco, Ross Gay, LaTanya McQueen, Jesus “Chuy” Renteria; Timothy Curry, founder of the YEW Program; Sarah Elgatian and Erica Eastland, Assistant Program Directors; Sam Bruner, Melissa Conway, Ava Miller, Hailey Schmacht, and Katherine Shewell, Workshop Leaders; and all the friends and family of the 2022 Young Emerging Writers for their care, dedication, and support to make this program, and this magazine, possible.
More info →MY CANCER CHRONICLE by Dick Stahl :: Available Now!
Quad City Poet Laureate Dick Stahl’s My Cancer Chronicle bids us accompany him on an intimate journey beginning with the diagnosis of “A Red Dot” on his nose. He looks closely; he tells the truth. There is pain and gratitude, memories and love—all countless “symbolic gifts” forming “what we all aspire to—a better life.”
-Paul Olsen, Retired Professor and Track and Field Coach, Augustana College
…[Stahl’s] voice amplifies the incredible power of the spoken and written word to move people and make connections. This collection of poetry artfully takes the reader on a journey, his journey fighting cancer, one that is beautiful, relatable, and ultimately inspiring in the face of the intense challenges faced by cancer patients, their loved ones, and those who care for them.
-Brian Baxter, Executive Director, Quad City Symphony Orchestra
In this, his last collection of poems, Dick Stahl captures the ebb and flow of the human condition. Fighting his lethal cancer, he smiles at a white-checkered tablecloth that “looks healthy” or waves at the Milky Way or at a monitor Helen and he named “Charlie”. While he soberly knows the grains of sand are falling as they echo loudly in his ears, he contemplates the radioactive beads making a beeline to his liver. He looks headlong into the demon and expresses his condition with beauty, faith and grace.
-Dale G. Haake, attorney and former Poet Laureate of the Quad Cities
Cancer stories can make grim reading. But not this one. Dick Stahl’s My Cancer Chronicle forms a sprightly valediction, not an elegy. Honest without self-pity, optimistic without sentimentality, courageous without bravado, these richly-detailed poems give us “sharper eyes” to discover joy interwoven with pain. The “quick pen” Stahl had hoped for inspires us to celebrate life, love, and the power of words to heal what is beyond curing.
-Ann Boaden, author of Light and Leaven: Women Who Shaped Augustana's First Century
Dick Stahl’s death to cancer was a severe loss, but the poetic process he made from early detection, through stages of treatment, moments of grace, to final dictation, keep his spirit alive and with us. His refuge from pain in poetry is both testament and memorial; a final gift to his friends and admirers.
-Don Wooten, WVIK Radio Host and Columnist
These Interesting Times: Surviving 2020 in the Quad Cities — Available Now!
These Interesting Times: Surviving 2020 in the Quad Cities -- Edited by Misty Urban
2020 was a disaster. Here, for the record, is what we survived.
In these moving and eloquent essays and poems, stories and artwork, writers and artists of the Quad Cities report on the disasters of 2020. We saw our careers change or disappear. Everything went online. We watched loved ones pass away and saw babies born that we couldn’t hold. We tried to school children, care for clients, and launch books. We watched public deaths, protests, and attacks. We contemplated murder hornets and eclipses. We cleaned up after a flood and then a derecho.
For some of us, isolation was a chance to breathe, take long walks, and read. For others, it was a long descent into darkness. Some of us grappled with life-threatening illness. Some of us found new peace. Yet we made it through.
With humor, precision, and ruthless clarity, the artists in this collection present a stunning mosaic of the ruptures, beauties, gifts, and costs of this utterly unprecedented year. Each piece is a glimpse into what was happening inside our personal pockets of isolation and virtual realities. Each piece is a celebration.
Join us in relishing our resilience and savoring our lessons as we reflect on what the year brought and took. Whatever else you can say about 2020, it was a very interesting time.
More info →Field Notes Recovered from the Expedition to Devil’s Peak by Laura A. Ring (Foster-Stahl Chapbook Series Selection) – Available Now!
This book is testament to what a palimpsest the imagination is, if only we would allow one layer to be scratched away until the next shines through, then the next and the next until we see we are not at all alone, especially not in the mind. Laura A. Ring excavates the imagination—brilliantly and gently, as if a fragment of thought could be harmed if mishandled—and unearths the contingencies upon which insight relies. From such a slim volume can our sense of the imagination be made new? Astonished, I think so.
—Katie Ford, author of Blood Lyrics and If You Have to Go
Such artistry, such invention in Laura Ring’s marvelous Field Notes Recovered from the Expedition to Devil’s Peak! From the striking image of “The body / stripped / to wolf-tooth” to the beautiful imperative “Drink the blue of the world,” Ring’s poems are spare and potent. This sequence of field notes based on a fictitious expedition, in which “Harriet Callas, archaeologist and alpinist, sets off in search of the fabled burial hoards of Inyaarluin,” is a ceremonious study in blurring the distinctions between synthetic and authentic. The book’s framework shifts between fabricated found fragments and footnotes, operating in the vein of literary hoaxes and found text, but layering, and commenting on those in ways that accentuate the inventiveness of language and meaning-making. Examining issues related to ecology, evidentiality, artificiality, the funereal, and the archival, all while underscoring Picasso’s famous maxim that “art is a lie that makes us realize truth,” Ring crafts a majestic meta-manuscript.
—Simone Muench, author of Orange Crush and Wolf Centos
More info →Choir by Aubrey Ryan (Foster-Stahl Chapbook Editor’s Choice Selection) – Available Now!
With Choir, Aubrey Ryan has created a new myth most needed. It tells of an origin before our origin story, and it stirs the story of our end. “Then birth was unsurvivable,” she says, because as mothers know and poets may note, the end of that story is birthed at the start. In this creation myth the end of our world is told by our acts, more like “nesting bowls” than a linear narration, and all of us complicit in the choir, though some voices more than others: the anti-heroes or “kings,” those who would send their cars around the sun. By now, our end is so entwined with our discoveries, maps are literally made of earth. As in the Greek plays, Ryan enlists a chorus most convincing—hers are oracles, guardians, bees—to help in the telling. Because it is a horrifying tale, but she knows the story of the end must be the kindest tale of all.
—Beth Roberts, author of Like You and Brief Moral History in Blue
More info →THE ATLAS 16
THE ATLAS 16 / Young Emerging Writers 2021 Interns and Staff
The 2021 Young Emerging Writers
LOLA NAKASHIMA BROOKE | JOE deBLOIS | NAOMI FONSEKA | KRYSSI FRANKS | TAYLER GILMORE | CHARLY HEBER-SPATES | KEIRSTYN JOHNSON | YIIJA "LINDA" LIN | JANEY LOCANDER | MISHKA MOHAMED NOUR | MIA ORRIS | WYETH PLATT | LARISSA POTHOVEN | K.A.S. | ELENA VALLEJO | EMMA WALHMANN | MORGAN WEBB
YEW Program Director/Editorial Director: Ryan Collins
Assistant Program Director/Editor-in-Chief: Sarah Elgatian
Assistant Program Director/Managing Editor: Erica Eastland
Workshop Leaders/Assistant Editors: Sam Bruner, Melissa Conway, KayLee Chie Kuehl, Ava Miller, Abigail Morrow, and Hailey Schmacht
Our most sincere thanks to our sponsors/grantors for their generous support of the 2021 Young Emerging Writers Internship Program and The Atlas 16: the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Regional Development Authority, Modern Woodmen of America, the Quad City Community Foundation, and Rozz-Tox.
Our gratitude, respect, and love to the following: the Midwest Writing Center Board of Directors, Committees, Staff, and Volunteers; the Rock Island Public Library; the David R. Collins Writers’ Conference 2021 Faculty: Allison Joseph, Lyz Lenz, Joe Meno, Tariq Shah, Gale Marie Thompson; Timothy Curry, founder of the YEW Program; Sarah Elgatian and Erica Eastland, Assistant Program Directors; Sam Bruner, Melissa Conway, KayLee Chie Kuehl, Ava Miller, Abigail Morrow, and Hailey Schmacht, Workshop Leaders; and all the friends and family of the 2021 Young Emerging Writers for their care, dedication, and support to make this program, and this magazine, possible.
More info →
How Little Billy Learned To Play
Written as a tribute to musician Bill Bell (1936-2017), How Little Billy Learned to Play follows a young, fictionalized Bill Bell as he learns to play music in the Watertown neighborhood of East Moline, IL where he grew up.
Join "Little Billy" as he learns to play Hambone from his Uncle Ferdinand, jams with other famed East Moline musicians Esther Clark and Mallie Williams, and learns where the rhythm comes from.
More info →Flowing Water, Falling Flowers – the debut novel from X.H Collins
PRAISE FOR FLOWING WATER, FALLING FLOWERS
"Flowing Water, Falling Flowers is an engrossing, beautiful debut that glides through multiple times and places. Collins brings to life not only the complex cast of characters, but an entire culture, both of which come vibrantly alive through her storytelling magic. The Han, Wang, and Fang families take us on an enlightening, unforgettable journey." –Kali White VanBaale, award-winning author of The Monsters We Make and The Good Divide
"The atmosphere for this book is masterfully set by a poem, a song, and a new-born baby’s cry. All too soon the child disappears into the night of 1891 China. In a modern-day Chicago the stage is set with Rose Ming’s breakup from a married man, the loss of her academic job, and the consoling trip back to California and her mother. Rose and her mother are drawn back to China and into a haunting mystery that spans generations." - Mary Davidsaver, author of Clouds Over Bishop Hill
"The lyrical prose of Xixuan Collins winds beautifully through the pages of Flowing Water, Falling Flowers. Choices made through love echo from century to century in this touching story rich in Chinese culture." - Tom McKay, author of West Fork, Another Life, and The Old Guard
-Felicia Schneiderhan, author of Newlyweds Afloat
THE ATLAS 15
DEAR READERS:
If there's anything we’re all sick of hearing, it’s about how “challenging” these times are. To us, it’s just a trendy, empty phrase that encourages people to be content with an absence of change. We’ve decided that this sentiment makes an excellent muse for our work this year. We’ve taken a phrase so stagnantly neutral and converted it into a way for our voices to be heard.
This year, we held all of our meetings over Zoom—we never thought we’d be asking to be in the sweltering basement of the Rock Island library instead. But this didn’t stop us from getting as close to each other as we would have in person.
Because the meetings were virtual, we braved a lot of things we didn’t expect. This included (but was not limited to) sketchy WiFi, weird lighting, our computers shutting off our audio for seemingly no reason, the lack of the ability to share food, and getting headaches from staring too long at our screens to get a better view of someone’s cat. However, we persevered through all of these hardships. Despite being so far away from each other, we each produced a large amount of incredible, deep, insightful work.
These pieces, among other things, show how we’re trying our best to understand the crazy world we live in when it seems like the world itself is a lot farther behind than we are. During this internship, we’ve developed our own little garden of writers—cultivating each other’s creativity, feeding off of everyone’s individual personalities and experiences, and ultimately blossoming with our own unique styles. This year, returning and new interns alike have come together to deliver prose, poetry, visual art, and even music. The odd circumstances of the year haven’t stopped us from making something that we’re all truly proud of.
We would like to point out that, even though our cats collectively wrote a novel when walking across our keyboards, none of their writing made it into The ATLAS 15. This is unfortunate. Still, we hope you enjoy this edition as much as we do.
WITH LOVE,
THE YOUNG EMERGING WRITERS 2020
THE ATLAS 15 / Young Emerging Writers 2020 Staff
YEW Program/Editorial Director: Ryan Collins
Assistant Program Director/Editor-in-Chief: Sarah Elgatian
Assistant Program Director/Managing Editor: Erica Eastland
Workshop Leaders/Assistant Editors:
Emily Lloyd Brown, Sam Bruner, Melissa Conway
KayLee Chie Kuehl, Abigail Morrow
Cover Image: “A Craving For Change” – Montana Hogan
Design: Skylar Alexander Moore
Our most sincere thanks to our sponsors/grantors for their generous support of the 2020 Young Emerging Writers Internship Program and The Atlas 15: Regional Development Authority; Scott County Regional Authority; Illinois
Humanities; Modern Woodmen of America; the Melvin McKay Charitable Trust; the CD Wiman Memorial; the Rausch Family Foundation I; the Moline Foundation; the Figge Art Museum; Rozz-Tox; and the Illinois Arts Council Agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
THE ATLAS 14
DEAR READERS:
VULNERABILITY ISN’T EASY. Writing, therefore, is similarly difficult. It’s one thing to put your feelings to paper, but to transform them into a full-fledged work of art is a true challenge. This summer, we seventeen interns spent seven weeks working together and encouraging one another to complete this challenge. While many writers often have to fight this uphill battle alone, we had the opportunity to connect over our similar passions and ensure one another that we were being heard.
Throughout the past seven weeks, we’ve learned how to say what’s important to us and how to find what we needed to say. Together, we’ve all contributed to creating a safe and supportive environment, and we’ve bonded over inside jokes and emotional vulnerability. The seventeen of us have grown into people we can be proud of, evolving from unsure teenagers into confident artists. We’ve learned about writing and editing and the world and even ourselves. We now go forward into the world, pen in hand, different than when we first arrived.
Each person participating in the YEW internship came from wildly varying backgrounds, yet all of us found a home here. We are seventeen people full of different memories, mistakes, and regrets, but in The Atlas, we found a shared voice. Through writing, we cracked ourselves open like eggs and found within us the freedom to tell people what we think, feel, and believe.
This is not just a book; this is a box that holds the beauty, pain, secrets, and lives of the seventeen young adults that created it. This book is an anthology of chaos. It’s made of sleepless nights and 3 a.m. talks, of stargazing and perpetually moving forward. This book is a house in which honesty and positivity are the sword and shield we wield against the world. Our collective voice is beautiful, chaotic, and sometimes downright insane, but it’s a voice that we stand by and believe in. The Midwest Writing Center is proud to present The Atlas 14.
With love,
The Young Emerging Writers 2019
The Old Guard
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tom McKay is a historian and museum consultant who lives in his hometown of Hampton, Illinois. His debut novel, West Fork, was published by East Hall Press at Augustana College in 2014. His short novel, Another Life, was published by 918studio press in 2014. His short stories have appeared in the Wapsipinicon Almanac, Vermont Ink, Downstate Story, the Wisconsin River Valley Journal, the Book Rack Newsletter, and the Out Loud Anthology series of the Midwest Writing Center.
More info →OUTSIDERS
“Pollard presses into the most real and most tender concepts of catch and release. Her speakers are meditative and embodied, imprisoned and craving to be freed. Outsiders is a marvel of persistence,
process, and will call on your empathy as it did mine.” — CM Burroughs
Meditations in a Helicopter About to Explode Over a Guy Covered in Chum, Surfing Off of Shark Bay Beach
"Evil is fantastic, shimmering, totally boring. Devastation is causal, inevitable, photoshopped. Profundity is detached, a parking lot, the B-movie of your most banal, necessary daydreams. Love is all of the above. So fuck death. Send postcards to ghosts. These poems are that carnival’s electric promise: to swallow you in weird, transformative light. But that’s no frivolous escape, it’s the desperate attempt “to make / a retina out of my heart.” What to do when fire breaks out in the fun house? Eat it alive." - Nick Sturm, author of HOW TO LIGHT
More info →The Polychrome Clinic by Caroline Crew
The 2013 winning chapbook in the MWC Chapbook Competition.
More info →Apple Season by Cindy Hunter Morgan
The 2012 winning chapbook in the MWC Chapbook Competition.
More info →The Canopy by Sandra Marchetti
The 2011 winning chapbook in the MWC Chapbook Competition.
More info →THE ATLAS 11
Annual literary magazine published by the 2016 Young Emerging Writers, featuring works of poetry, fiction, and hybrid writing.
More info →The Atlas Vol. 10
A collection of poetry and prose by the 2015 Young Emerging Writers interns.
More info →The Atlas Vol. 9
The 2014 collection of stories, poetry, and photographs by Young Emerging Writers interns.
More info →The Atlas Vol. 8
The 2013 collection of stories, poetry, and plays by Young Emerging Writers interns.
More info →The Atlas Vol. 7
The 2012 collection of stories, poetry, and collaborations by Young Emerging Writers interns.
More info →The Atlas Vol. 6
The 2011 collection of stories, poetry, and collaborations by Young Emerging Writers interns.
More info →The Atlas Vol. 5
The 2012 collection of stories, poetry, and collaborations by Young Emerging Writers interns.
More info →The Atlas Vol. 4
The 2009 collection of stories, poetry, and collaborations by Young Emerging Writers interns.
More info →The Atlas Vol. 3
The 2008 collection of stories, poetry, and prose by Young Emerging Writers interns.
More info →The Atlas Vol. 2
The 2007 collection of stories, poetry, and photographs by Young Emerging Writers interns.
More info →Bix Beiderbecke: Jazz Age Genius
Learn about the life of famous Quad Cities USA Jazz musician, Bix Beiderbecke!
More info →Naked Came The Plowman by Midwest Writing Center
A novel written by the 1999 Midwest Writing Center board and employees.
More info →With Pen In Hand
A book by notable Quad-City writers of the past. - Out of Print and Out of Stock
More info →Off Channel Vol. 1
An anthology of competition poems from the Mississippi Valley Poetry Contest featuring the winners and finalists, judged by Rebecca Wee and F. Daniel Rzicznek.
More info →Off Channel Vol. 2
An anthology of competition poems from the Mississippi Valley Poetry Contest featuring the winners and finalists, judged by Louise Mathias and Stephen Frech.
More info →Off Channel Vol. 3
An anthology of competition poems from the Mississippi Valley Poetry Contest featuring the winners and finalists, judged by Don Cellini and Brandi Homan.
More info →Off Channel Vol. 4
An anthology of poems from the Mississippi Valley Poetry Contest featuring winners and finalists, judged by Nate Pritts and Chad Paramenter.
More info →Off Channel Vol. 5
An anthology of competition poems from the Mississippi Valley Poetry Contest featuring the winners and finalists, judged by Lisa Zimmerman.
More info →Out Loud Anthology Vol. 1
A collection of works from the 2006 Out Loud Open Mic participants.
More info →Out Loud Anthology Vol. 2
A collection of works from the 2007 Out Loud Open Mic participants.
More info →Out Loud Anthology Vol. 3
The collection of works from the 2009 Out Loud Open Mic participants.
More info →Out Loud Anthology Vol. 5
The collection of works from the 2012 Out Loud reading series.
More info →Out Loud Anthology Vol. 6
A collection of works from the 2013 poets at open mics and readings.
More info →Clouds Over Bishop Hill
“A meticulous yet delicately restrained imagery of the historical and character complexities of the Swedish prairie colony.” — Robin Throne, author of Her Kind
More info →